Town of Norwich pleased to get same highway funds as last year

NORWICH – Despite much concern over the state’s economic health, many municipalities breathed a sigh of relief last month as they received compensations from the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS), that restored tens of thousands worth of jeopardized funding.

“CHIPS are the largest amount of aid the town of Norwich, and probably most other towns, annually receives from Albany,” said Norwich Town Supervisor David Law.

The Town of Norwich received around $71,000, the exact same amount it collected last year. David Hamburg, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation in the Southern Tier, said every local government in Chenango County would receive the same amount of compensation from CHIPS as last year.

County Department of Public Works Director Randy Gibbon said the program was not technically a grant, but a compensation, explaining towns have to first spend the money and then are reimbursed by the state.